I'm sure this report will self destruct as I type, but might as well post anyway. I skied from 8-9:30 am North Loop plus Dog Island. I was hit with mini sleet to start, a few snowflakes about 20 minutes in, and light rain the last 20 minutes. The skate deck really formed up hard overnight which is the key note of this report. No need to play weatherman here, but I'm optimistic that we will have a great flat solid base coming out of this yucky rain event no matter how much falls at Hickory. The base appears to be colder than I expected. Overall while today's ski was on the icier side, of to no surprise, I was still able to get reasonable control and got some good training in. Even an inch of snow on Monday or whenever will be good help.

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Strided all groomed trails, good tracks but too oak leafy, so strided out of tracks. Good glide and snow cover. Getting slickery by 9:30am.

(Audun Mikkelson)

I've skate skied Friday, Sunday, and now today during this heat wave. When I skied Friday and Sunday, the snow was still plenty cold enough that it was firm, fast, and the wax maybe didn't need to be too dialed in. Today was a bit of a different story with the humidity in the air. It was the first day the I noticed that seemed the snow was transforming to a bit more of a warmer temp. I wouldn't call it March skiing conditions, but will be interesting over the next few days. I had a mix of medium and warm temp glide wax and wish I would have just went with all warm temp wax. All that being said, the skate deck was recently touched up, still some oak leaves (only reason I still recommend B skis, though A's you might be fine), and still beautiful amounts of snow for this time of year. A nice speedy glide I'm sure can be found. If you ask me, beats zero degree skiing. And also beats work and Xmas shopping for sure.

Photos:

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Ski Trail: Skate lane and classic tracks were groomed Friday night. Guys said there are lots of leaves down but grooming went well.
Fatbike Trail: Was in great shape Wednesday night so we left it alone. I have not had any reports since I rode it but it should still be great.

(Kevin Roytek)

Hit the perfect time with the temps late this afternoon trail is awesome, perfectly groomed. Tracked as it has been; when I hopped into the tracks I noticed the skis go even faster. The base seems colder so I think we can be optimistic it will hold up with over the Xmas heatwave. So why B skis recommendation? Oak leaves are back. Not that an oak leaf would damage a ski, but in these fast conditions it's hard to tell when there's a piece of small bark in the middle of all the leaves. Would A skis be fine? Yeah probably. If you run several pairs of skis and go a bunch, then B's are probably best.

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Skied the south loop today, trails are groomed and in good condition. The only negative (slight): a fair number of oak leaves on the trail.

(Geoff Roznak)

When you head to Hickory today, bring your soft skis. As noted, the trail was groomed yesterday but this morning there is probably 2-3" of light powder on top of the deck and tracks. There's still plenty of glide to be had as the grooming under the fluff is packed in well; from my viewpoint it's groomed even if it doesn't look as such. Oak leaves are now buried. What a wonderful amount of snow. Great training day and very pretty.

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

I started at noon. The groomer had rolled everything. There was a track set and skate deck groomed until the north loop. I headed out on Tram Lake loop and was met by the groomer as he groomed the trail. When I got back out on the North loop it was now groomed. I was fired up when I got to the connector to Dog Island and Highland Lowland because they were all groomed and tracked. Dog Island was like a dream. When I got back to the North loop it was finish with a nice track. I got to thank Art when I got back to the parking lot. It was just starting to snow a couple inches.

(Karen Possley)

Skied both Saturday and Sunday mornings with Reverend Zimmerman, and we hit every K of trail on the system. All groomed with great coverage. Lots of oak leaves along the trail but I thought there were even more today than the previous day. The leaves and the occasional stick are the only reasons why this is a B ski report. Hopefully more snow will help get us officially into A skis. The connector trail from the south lot is slightly uneven, but it gets better on almost all the rest of the trail. I'd like to note the Tram Loop, while very skiable, hasn't been worked fully in yet or they used different grooming equipment on that trail. The rest of the trail is mid season conditions. Also, nice tracks set on all trails for striders.

(Brady Zwiefelhofer)

Other than the troublesome oak leaves and a few sticks the skiing was very good. Very much worth the trip for the first ski of the season. Good job groomers! Plenty of skiers and bikers out on a beautiful day. It was great to see the Chip Ski Team out getting in some practice!

(John Salden)